Chelsea: 5 Midfield Roles Nemanja Matić Could Play

4. Box-to-box

Continuing with the 4-2-3-1, Mati‡ has a great deal more to offer than just defensive awareness. His comfort on the ball makes him just as valuable driving the play forward in the manner of a Yaya Touré, giving Mourinho the option of a seemingly unbreachable double pivot with Mikel without sacrificing the chance of getting the ball forward through means other than lengthy punts upfield from the centre backs. This is similar to the role Lampard previously filled before age forced him deeper, but while Mati‡ offers nowhere near the same consistent goalscoring threat, that hardly matters when the likes of Oscar and Hazard will be running ahead of him. His responsibility would be to shift momentum towards the opposition's goal with the ball at his feet and make the most of the passing options ahead of him. His favoured lobbed through ball should be well suited to Willian and Hazard using their speed to break the offside trap, either to go for goal themselves or take advantage of Samuel Eto'o's poaching skills. It will also be interesting to see what happens when Marco van Ginkel returns from injury, as he and Mati‡ share similarities in their ability to control the midfield and carry the ball forward from deep. Van Ginkel is the more offensive of the two, having scored twelve goals in all competitions during his 2012/13 season with Vitesse Arnhem, but while he's also a very raw talent (it's not inconceivable Chelsea could send him on loan next year to ensure he gets enough playtime to fully recover from the cruciate ligament injury which will write him off for much of this season), there's definite potential for the two to form the kind of terrifying midfield pairing that Man City have found so devastating in Fernandinho and Yaya Touré. Also worth noting is that, at 6'4, pairing Mati‡ with the 6'2 Mikel or 6'1 van Ginkel would ensure aerial dominance in just about any encounter - and that's to say nothing of the possibility of 6'3 Gary Cahill, 6'2 David Luiz behind them and 6'2 Demba Ba in front. Even Stoke would be somewhat aquiver.